Goa: Land Mine Explodes

The Exclusive Details of the Shah Commission Report on illegal mining in Goa

NOTE: Presented below are the details available to us of the Shah Commission of Enquiry, set up by the Union Mines ministry to probe illegal mining in all the mineral rich states across the country - Goa, Karnataka, Orissa, Jharkhand, Chhattisgarh and Andhra Pradesh. The team under former Supreme Court Justice MB Shah surveyed Goa's operating mines for two months, using 8 teams of 3 members each. The report is in its final stages, before submission. It is standard media practice to get access to such reports or other forms of official documentation through legitimate sources. Our intent is not to undermine either the Commission of Enquiry or the activism against illegal mining. In fact, quite the contrary, this is the second such investigation we have done in the past 2 months on mining violations in Goa. Suffice to say that these are the precise pointers contained in the report at the time when we were given access to it; in fact, that access would not have been possible had the source/s not wished for some or all part of the findings to be given public airing.

The Shah Commission report is divided into two parts.

Part 1 lists 8 violations under various sections of Mining Law. In some of the cases, specific mines were mentioned as annexures.

1. Mines operating without deemed extension

2. Mines not following Bombay High Court directions Order # 77 of 18.07.03

Part II of the report deals with Forest Act and Environmental Protection Act violations. This was still being completed at the time when we went to press.

In addition, the Report contains the following observations:

Justice Shah seems to have reacted strongly to the public hearings conducted as part of the report, where members of the truck owners associations whose trucks transport the ore packed the hearings and didn't let anyone speak. According to the Commission, the truck owners, most of whom are local Goans from villages in the mining areas argued that while there is illegal mining, it should be permitted since many livelihoods depended on it.

In response, Justice Shah writes:

'Are we going to regularise illegality'

'Concerned departments of state and Indian Bureau of Mines (IBM) failed to control illegal mining for reasons best known to them'

(Currently, Goa exports 100% of its ore, almost all of which goes to China. Goa exported 53 million tonnes of ore last year. Its exports account for roughly 50% of all ore exported by India. The state meanwhile earned Rs. 966 crores as mining royalty in 2010.)Annexures (as per Shah Commission Report) :